3 Stocks Shaking the Market

Some stocks are one-hit wonders, making a big splash when they first appear, then quickly fizzling into obscurity or oblivion. But for other stocks, that initial big move is only a preview for even bigger and better gains to come.

Today, we've listed three stocks that made some of the biggest upward moves over the past month, which we'll pair with the ratings issued by our Motley Fool CAPS community. The higher each stock's rating, the greater CAPS members' faith in that company's ability to keep on beating the market.

Source: FinViz.com.

While you were out, the market has plunged below the 12,000 level and is making a bid today to get back above that psychological level, so before we get shaken out again, let's see why the CAPS community thinks some of these companies might continue to outperform the market.

A mighty temblor
The bloom is fading quickly from the IPO rose of 4G pure play Sequans Communications. The wireless chipmaker focuses on WiMAX-based smartphones using baseband and RF front-end circuits, though it also pursues some side work with HTC for that company's LTE-based handsets.

Analysts think China and India can provide Sequans with another level of growth, considering its deals with China Mobile and Reliance Communications. But Chinese wireless chipmaker Spreadtrum (Nasdaq: SPRD) already aims to ship 50 million to 60 million chips this year -- even more than it previously thought it would produce to support China's TD-SCDMA cellular standard. Its chips cover 2G, 3G, and 4G architectures. With Spreadtrum already saturating the market, will Sequans have any room left to thrive?

After hitting a high of $19.50 a few weeks out of the gate, Sequans shares have already given up about a third of their value. Still, CAPS member empireruler thinks the inevitable switchover to full 4G networks will bolster Sequans' chance of success:

if you see 4G coming in the next few years in telecom you can see this stock appreciating to nearly a 4bill market-cap or more growth should slowly show once more people want 4G and a large precent of people have 3G

Unlike Spreadtrum, whose chips allow for multi-mode integration, Sequans will be targeting handsets that do not need to integrate 2G and 3G modes. Let us know on the Sequans Communications CAPS page which model is best.

Get some spine
When the market for 3-D and Internet-ready TV's didn't take off as planned last year, Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) doubled down on its cell phone initiatives, including its stand-alone Best Buy Mobile stores. Smartphone sales -- and a hefty buyback program -- helped the consumer-electronics retailer easily surpass analyst expectations this past quarter.

Best Buy also represents one of ZAGG's significant customers for its invisibleSHIELD line of consumer product protectants. Roughly 70% of ZAGG's sales last quarter went through its indirect channel of big-box retailers.

ZAGG sales jumped 207% from the year-ago period -- but investors should ask themselves whether those sales can continue. Inventories in the quarter also rose 380% from last year, and while raw materials jumped a healthy 250%, finished goods soared about 900%. Inventories that rise faster than sales are always a warning sign, particularly when finished goods, not raw materials, are piling up.

Nonetheless, CAPS member Savage88 expects the growth of mobile communications to eat up all those protective sheets of film:

As we all know, the world is going mobile. As the world buys more smartphones and tablets, ZAGG's sales will continue to rise. Positioned as a leader in mobile device accessories and with a new partnership with Logitech that geometrically increases production capacity and distribution channels of the ZAGGMate, ZAGG's future looks very bright indeed.

Tell us in the comments section below or on the ZAGG CAPS page what investors can do to protect themselves.

Should I stay or go?
The mobile future is also driving Glu Mobile higher, particularly now that it's signed an agreement with NVIDIA to develop games for the Android platform. There is some backlash brewing though over Glu's business model of giving the games away for free, but charging -- some would say overcharging -- for in-game items.

Chinese gaming company Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD) enjoys ever-greater success with these sorts of games, and Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS) also considers such microtransactions a growth opportunity. However, the "freemium" gaming model doesn't appeal to everyone. Gaming stalwart Nintendo says that if the business got to the point that it had to give its games away, there wouldn't be much of a market left worth building for.

A quarter of the All-Stars rating Glu think it'll have a problem beating the market in the months ahead. Tell us on the Glu Mobile CAPS page whether you think the mobile gamer's still got game.

Shake, rattle, and roll
With these stocks shaking the market this past month it pays to start your own research on them at Motley Fool CAPS. Read a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made all from a stock's CAPS page.